The Prankster, the Tricky One - Coyote
by hummerhouse
Summary: There is no such thing as simple night time fun when you're a mutant turtle. Written for the 2018 Michelangelo Fanbook: Orange Crush. One Shot, 2k3 TMNT.


The Prankster, the Tricky One – Coyote 

*Jungian Archetypes: The Joker, the Laughing Child, the Prankster, the Tricky one, Coyote…

"Tell me why you don't want me to teach you a lesson," Leonardo said.

Michelangelo paused, his sandwich halfway to his mouth, and stared at his brother. He had no idea where his brother was headed with that line, but he was pretty sure he hadn't done anything in the last twenty-four hours to warrant Leo's retribution.

"Um, 'cause lessons are usually punishment and I've been on my best behavior?" Mikey guessed.

"Now tell me why you do want me to teach you a lesson," Leo said.

Grinning facetiously, Mikey answered, "'Cause I wanna grow up to be just like you."

Refusing to be baited into a further discussion on whatever was stuck in Leo's craw, Mikey sauntered out of the kitchen. Eating his sandwich as he walked, Mikey headed for the living area and the stack of comics waiting for him there.

He couldn't hear Leo trailing along behind him because silence was a twenty-four seven thing with his big brother, but Mikey could sense he was there. Mikey rolled his eyes; it figured that the second Leo found himself with nothing to do he'd decide it was 'pick on little brother' day.

"Growing up to be just like me means you have to practice more," Leo said as Mikey sank onto the floor next to his comic books.

"Oh, so that lesson you were talking about was the one where you teach me how not to let you kick my shell," Mikey said. "If I remember correctly, and I do 'cause I've got a trophy to prove it, I'm the Battle Nexus Champion."

"Falling back on past laurels will not help with your growth," Leo said. "You have a ton of potential, Mikey. You just have to learn to channel your energies."

Shoving the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth, Mikey wiped his fingers on his belt and reached for a comic. "Let me guess," he said, talking around the food, "nobody else will practice with you right now."

Leo's sigh of exasperation was audible. "That is not the point. The rest of us find the time outside of our scheduled practice sessions in order to hone our skills, even Donatello, who actually has other important things to do. You escape from Master Splinter as fast as you can and then laze around for the remainder of the day."

Mikey didn't particularly want to play verbal volleyball with Leo, but he could if his brother insisted on pushing the issue. "Remind me who it was that teased me unmercifully about my wanting to become the Turtle Titan? Then I did it anyway and now Silver Sentry's my buddy. Not yours, mine. Not yours, _mine_."

"More past glories," Leo countered.

Looking up at him, Mikey said, "Everything is the past, Leo. Five minutes ago in the kitchen is now the past. I suppose making myself something to eat qualifies as lazing around?"

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about," Leo said.

"Not really," Mikey muttered.

Leo kneeled down on the floor next to him. With a quick glance, Mikey took in his brother's dogged expression. Leo definitely had something specific in mind and it did not involve Mikey enjoying a quiet evening with his comics.

"How about we go topside and practice some stealth exercises?" Leo suggested. "Even you have to admit that's not your strongest suit."

Mikey grimaced. Leo was hitting below the belt. "I can think of a few times when I managed that just fine."

"With effort," Leo said. "I can think of a few times when you tried and it backfired. You need stealth in order to be a ninja. You don't need it to win a Battle Nexus championship."

"You are seriously not gonna let this go, are you?" Mikey asked.

"It's a nice night," Leo said in a coaxing manner. "We can play 'see who gets closest to the humans'."

Mikey was about to retort that Leo always won that game, but his brother offered to play it so rarely that it was a pretty tempting inducement.

Setting his comics aside, Mikey stood up. "You're on," he said. "Disguises or no disguises?"

Delighted, Leo jumped to his feet. "Simple disguises are okay. Just to give you a fighting chance."

The first shot of adrenaline hit Mikey's system. "Cocky much?" he teased. "I'll bet you make someone scream before I do."

"Willing to put a week's worth of extra practice on that?" Leo asked, a gleam of cunning in his eyes.

Warning bells went off in Mikey's head and he realized he'd walked into a trap. Refusing the wager would mean admitting that no matter what he did, Leo was better than him. Taking the bet meant he'd probably spend a week doing exactly what Leo had started off trying to coax him into in the first place.

Pride won the day, especially since Leo was wearing an overly complacent look on his face.

"No problem," Mikey said, hands on his hips. "When I win, you have to spend a week lazing around. No extra practice, just junk food and video games. And you have to wait on me hand and foot too."

A corner of Leo's mouth lifted. "Oh, if we're going that far, then you have to practice until I say you can stop."

Mikey could practically feel himself sinking further into the quicksand. Some day he really had to learn when to keep his mouth shut.

He followed Leo into the elevator. As they rode up to the garage, Mikey tried hard to think of a way to renege on their bet without actually being the one to call it off. Unfortunately, the trip didn't last long enough for his brain to kick into high gear.

Once they were in the garage, Mikey and Leo dug around inside the wooden chest where they kept their disguises. Mikey noted that Leo chose a trench coat and large hat, so he grabbed the same things. When Leo turned away, Mikey made another couple of quick selections.

"So, where should we go?" Mikey asked as they pulled out of the garage on their Shell Cycles.

"Greenwich Village," Leo said. "It's got the night life without as many inebriated people."

"Yeah," Mikey agreed. "Drunks always think we're part of the green elephant brigade anyway. Not much of a challenge."

They settled on a neighborhood with a couple of restaurants, a pizzeria, a comedy club, and a jazz venue. It wasn't as hectic as Broadway, but there was still plenty of foot traffic.

"You start on this end, I'll start on the other," Leo said as they pulled over to survey their prospects. "We'll move towards each other. If there's a commotion from the humans, then we'll know which of us couldn't manage to fade into our surroundings."

"And if neither of us raises any alarms?" Mikey asked. "Is it a tie?"

He was hopeful, but Leo shook his head. "You'll go to the take out window at the pizzeria and order a slice while I get a hot dog from the street vendor. Whoever shows up at the park bench across the street first with their food is the winner."

They separated and Mikey found a safe place to park his bike. With Leo out of viewing range, Mikey quickly changed out of the trench coat and into the old woman garment he'd worn while helping Nobody. To aid in his disguise, he added a hat with a face veil and gloves.

Feeling confident that no one would recognize him as anything other than human, Mikey took to the streets. He walked slowly, emulating the gait of someone much older than himself. The first group of people he passed barely gave him a glance and Mikey grinned. For once he just might have a fighting chance at beating Leonardo.

As he strolled along, Mikey picked up fragments of conversations. As he neared people, he sometimes heard such things as 'kind of late for such an old woman' and 'wonder why she's out here by herself?'" True to the native New Yorker's temperament, no one actually attempted to stop him or offer assistance.

Mikey made it to the designated midway point without drawing undue attention. He didn't see Leo and began to feel less sure of winning their wager. Big brother was probably already ordering his hot dog.

Pushing down the urge to hurry, Mikey maintained his old woman persona and walked back to the pizzeria. Passing the entrance into the restaurant proper, he went to the take-out window and tapped the bell on the counter to get someone's attention.

One of the cook's finished pulling a steaming pizza from the oven before hurrying to the window. Wiping his hands on his apron, he barely looked at Mikey as he asked, "What'll it be?"

"Give me a slice with everything, young man," Mikey said, pitching his voice an octave higher.

"Anchovies?" the man asked in a bored tone.

Mikey normally would have said yes, because to him everything meant 'everything'. But since most people didn't seem to care for fish on their pizza, he'd most likely have to wait for his pizza to be made. There was no time for that with Leo breathing down his neck.

"No," Mikey answered regretfully. He could always come back after he met up with Leo and get himself a second slice with anchovies.

By the time he'd fished money out from underneath his confining disguise, a paper plate holding a slice of pizza was being placed on the counter. Mikey slid the cash over and took the plate, turning away from the window as he did a quick check of the street.

Mikey waited until he'd reached the park bench before pushing up his veil, folding the slice over, and taking a bite. He was grinning so widely that it was hard to chew. Leo hadn't raised any alarms, but he hadn't beaten Mikey to the designated meeting spot. That meant that Mikey had won their bet. The younger turtle was feeling very cocky.

Time ticked by. The pizza was long gone and Leo still hadn't showed up. Mikey's emotions moved from elated, to a little concerned, to downright worried.

Finally he tried Leo's shell cell. After letting the call ring twelve times without receiving an answer and then getting nothing from the tracker, Mikey knew that it was time to find his brother.

The first thing he did was to backtrack Leo. Starting at the point where they'd originally split up, Mikey sauntered along the sidewalk, maintaining his guise as an old woman. Though his pace was slow, his eyes were continuously moving.

It wasn't the first time Mikey had ever played detective. He knew from past experiences that the best clues for finding his brother would come from people who might have witnessed something. Because there hadn't been any sort of disturbance, Mikey knew his witnesses probably hadn't realized they'd seen anything out of the ordinary.

Glad that he'd decided to stay in costume, Mikey began stopping people along the street and asking if they'd seen his 'husband'. He described the outfit Leo had been wearing and even mentioned he might have been headed for the hot dog cart.

Most of the people he stopped claimed not to have noticed Leo at all. It wasn't until Mikey approached a group of teenagers that his questioning struck pay dirt.

The young men started to snicker as Mikey walked up to them, but the two teenage girls standing with them appeared sympathetic, so he addressed his questions to them.

"Oh yeah, we totally saw your husband," a redhead told him.

"He was over there," her brunette friend said, pointing towards a small boutique store. "He looked like he wasn't feeling too good."

"Yeah," the redhead said, nodding. "He sort of slumped over and fell against the wall. These two men in suits ran over and caught his arms so he wouldn't hit the ground."

"It was so good they were there," the brunette said. "We talked about maybe we should help, but the men kind of picked him up and took him away."

"You should totally check the hospital," the redhead said.

"Which way did they go?" Mikey asked, barely remembering to maintain his old woman voice. Hearing that Leo had been taken away by two men was causing all sorts of alarms to go off in his head.

"Down the street," the brunette said, pointing out the direction. "They probably took him to their car."

"Took him to the drugstore," one of the boys said.

"Did not," the redhead said, pouting.

"Yeah they did," another of the boys said. "Carried him right through the front door."

"Never came out either," the first boy said.

"Whatever," the brunette said, flipping her hair in a dismissive gesture.

"Uh, thanks," Mikey said, turning away. There was no point in loitering just to hear the teens argue. One thing of which he was certain was that they'd been telling him the truth. Men had grabbed Leo and they'd probably taken him to the drugstore.

Since he'd have noticed an ambulance if one had been called, Mikey felt sure that his brother was still inside that drugstore. He was also sure that Leo hadn't had some random fainting spell. Most likely he'd been drugged. That meant that whoever had taken him knew exactly who he was.

A thought that he should phone Raph and Don for help flitted through Mikey's mind, but he was already moving and too worried to waste time calling for backup. Considering their various enemies and how much those enemies hated the turtles, every second counted.

At first glance the drugstore looked fairly innocuous. It didn't even appear to be open, though there were a few lights on inside the store, probably as a security precaution.

As Mikey drew closer though, he spotted two men loitering near the entrance and trying to appear as though they weren't. Both were of an athletic build, and both were sporting dark suits and ties.

 _"Well, that doesn't look out of place at all,"_ Mikey thought.

He strolled nearer, using a group of people leaving a restaurant as partial cover. Sliding away from the group before they passed the men, Mikey stood in the shadowed doorway of the greeting card shop that was next to the drugstore. Remaining immobile, Mikey strained to listen for any conversation the men might have.

"I can't believe how we lucked out, Fred," the taller of the men said.

"Keep your eyes open, Marv," Fred replied. "If there's one, there's bound to be more."

"If we can snag another one, maybe Bishop will let us go back to Washington and out of this godforsaken beatnik dead zone," Marv said.

"And if we lose the one we do have, he'll start experimenting on us," Fred said.

"There are plenty of guards on him," Marv said. "Bishop's already on his way. Only thing we gotta do is grab anything that tries for a rescue."

Fred chuckled. "Yeah. At least if we stay close, we can meet Bishop and make sure nobody else tries to claim credit for the one we caught."

Bishop. Mikey's hands clenched into fists. He'd have time later to wonder why Bishop had men roaming around Greenwich Village, but now he needed to rescue his brother before the agent arrived. Once he was here, it would be twenty times harder to get Leo away from him.

There had to be another way inside that didn't involve the front door. Building codes required that public places have secondary escape routes in case of fire, so Mikey turned in the opposite direction, walking away from the drugstore. Continuing to walk so slowly was tortuous, but if those two men caught sight of him, Mikey needed for them to be fooled into thinking they were looking at the retreating form of an old woman.

Reaching a dark alleyway, Mikey stripped out of his clothing. He debated on leaving the items behind a trash bin, but decided they might still be handy. Rolling everything into the blouse, Mikey draped the bundle over his shell and tied the arms together around his neck.

It took him only a few seconds to ascend to the rooftop of the building next to the one housing the drugstore. Crouching low so as not to skyline himself, Mikey crept to the edge of the roof and carefully inspected his target.

As far as he could tell, the only guards posted outside were the two men who'd captured his brother. That didn't mean there wasn't a whole swarm of them inside, or a lot of security gadgets he wasn't equipped to deal with.

Finding a way in was his first priority. Taking a running leap, Mikey soared across open space to land silently atop the drugstore roof.

There wasn't anything as nice as a skylight for Mikey to crawl through, but after walking the length of the roof he did find the maintenance access door. He also noticed a three foot tall metal box nearby and after prying the cover off, found that it housed the building's electrical panel.

Mikey debated throwing all of the switches, but realized that someone would just come up to the roof and flip them back on again. Then he remembered a prank he'd once played – one that had really pissed Donny off. He'd only meant to aggravate Raph by shorting out the lights in his brother's room when Raph turned them on. The coin he'd stuck inside the switch had done the trick, but it had blown a lot more than Raph's lights. The reaction he'd gotten out of his volatile brother had been worth the punishment of going without video games for a month.

Taking a kunai from his belt, Mikey popped the switch covers off of several of the circuit breakers. Staring at the underlying sets of wires, Mikey muttered, "I helped Donny fix one mess, I should be able to figure out how to make another."

Twisting various wires together, Mikey then stepped back and let fly with a pair of kunai. The resultant explosion as they hit their target was extremely gratifying.

Figuring he had maybe ten seconds before someone raced up to the roof, Mikey yanked open the roof access door and dropped to the floor below. He wasted no time escaping the area, running in the opposite direction of the voices he heard.

The floor he was on was in complete darkness, which suited Mikey just fine. A quick check of a couple of rooms proved that the floor wasn't used for anything.

Circling around behind the men who'd come to investigate the power outage, Mikey descended the stairs to the next floor. Here he found that some illumination was provided by emergency lights over the exits. Staying out of the lit areas, Mikey opened random doors and found that most of the rooms were used for storage.

In one room he found several helium tanks and boxes of balloons. They gave him an idea. Mikey knew that the drugstore itself, just one floor down, would probably be where he'd encounter some of Bishop's men. He'd rather know where they were before they saw him.

Keeping his ears open, Mikey set to work filling some large balloons with helium. He then 'dressed' the balloons in his old lady garments, topping one with his wig and veil. Mikey used ribbons to tie the pieces together and then carried his decoy to the top of the stairs which led to the lower floor.

In order to make the decoy look as though it were walking down, Mikey gingerly poked small holes into the balloons. He didn't release the fake old woman until he felt it begin to lose buoyancy.

Mikey had to admit as it floated down the stairs that it looked very much like someone trying to be stealthy. Hugging the wall, Mikey descended as well, maintaining enough distance to ensure that the decoy would be spotted first.

Just as he'd expected, a man in a suit scurried out of a hiding spot near the staircase, took aim at the balloon woman, and fired. A tranquilizer dart hit one of the balloons and it popped.

Startled, the guard hesitated and that's when Mikey leaped over the stair railing to kick the man squarely on his jaw. As the man fell back, Mikey wrenched the tranquilizer gun from his hand and then punched him hard enough to knock him out.

Squatting next to the man, Mikey glanced around the store and then searched the man's pockets. He found a box containing additional tranquilizer darts and reloaded the gun.

Mikey had just started moving again when he heard the front door open. Sliding up next to a display rack, Mikey held the gun ready as he watched the two street guards, Fred and Marv, enter the store.

 _"This is like a video game,"_ Mikey thought as the men separated, each going in opposite directions.

It felt more like one when a voice called down from the top of the stairs, "Bernie?"

"What happened to the lights, Gary?" Fred asked.

"Someone screwed with the panel," Gary answered as he began to descend. "Where's Bernie?"

"I think we've got company," Marv called out. "Bernie's over here and he's out cold. Oh shit, his tranq gun's gone!"

Watching the stairs, Mikey saw Gary crouch as soon as he heard that announcement. Taking a bead on the man, Mikey shot him when Gary started running.

Gary cried out as the dart hit him and then he tumbled unconscious to the bottom of the stairs. Mikey was reloading as he moved, gauging Marv's location based on where Bernie had been lying.

There was only two directions the man could go and Mikey guessed he wouldn't head towards the spot where Gary had been ambushed. Staying low to the floor, Mikey crept around a row of shelves to look down one aisle before moving to the next.

The flash of a black jacket showed Mikey that Marv was moving parallel to him. Racing down the aisle as soon as Marv had moved past it, Mikey leaned around the end cap and shot a dart right between Marv's shoulder blades.

"Take that sucker," Mikey said, grinning as Marv hit the floor.

He heard the remaining man's shoes tapping against the tile flooring nearby and backed away from Marv. Mikey's peripheral vision caught movement and he glanced up to spot a large mirror hanging above the prescription counter. In it he could see Fred, who was clutching his gun in both hands as he tried to move silently around to cut Mikey off.

 _"No wonder Bishop tried to get rid of these guys,"_ Mikey thought.

Shoving another dart into his tranquilizer gun, Mikey climbed to the top of a shelving unit. Picking his way over stacked boxes, Mikey made his way to where Fred stood, seemingly unsure of which direction he should go.

Mikey decided to save his dart. Jumping down, he kicked the gun from Fred's hands as the man started to raise it in his direction.

Fred jumped back as Mikey swung a fist at him and then the man pivoted on one leg as he tried for a roundhouse kick. Mikey lifted his leg to check the kick, and then connected with a quick jab to Fred's face that snapped the man's head back.

Shifting into a boxer's stance, Fred eyed his opponent, waiting for Mikey's next move.

"Oh, you want a piece of this?" Mikey asked, bouncing on his toes.

Mikey countered Fred's right cross with a jab, using his shoulder to block the man's punch and then connecting squarely with Fred's mouth. Undaunted, Fred spit blood from his mouth and then tried for a right hook.

The man seemed incredibly slow, especially considering that Mikey usually fought against his brother Raphael. Mikey swayed back, blocking the hook with his left arm and then countering with a straight right.

Fred's hands went down and his eyes rolled back just before his entire body dropped. He was still barely conscious and Mikey squatted next to him, grabbing a handful of hair and turning Fred's face in his direction.

"Where's my brother?" Mikey asked.

"Piss off," Fred hissed, spraying blood from his busted lips.

"Gross," Mikey replied. Pulling his nunchaku, Mikey tapped the ends against a certain sensitive spot between Fred's legs. "Think very carefully about the damage I could do before you answer this next question. Where's my brother?"

"Basement," Fred answered before coughing noisily.

Mikey's beak wrinkled in disgust. Dropping the man's head, Mikey delivered a hard punch to his temple that sent Fred into dreamland. Standing up, Mikey moved towards the back of the store, spotting a door just past the stairs that he assumed led down to the basement.

Some sort of sixth sense warned Mikey that he wasn't alone. He reacted by leaping aside and then heard the ping of a dart as it hit the glass on a display case. Pulling his tranquilizer gun, Mikey spotted a man running down the stairs and pulled the trigger before the man could get off another shot.

The man rolled the rest of the way down and Mikey stepped over him to get to the basement door. Reloading as he listened at the door, Mikey carefully turned the knob and soundlessly swung the door open.

There was only one bulb illuminating the floor below, but it gave off enough light for Mikey to see where he was going. He paused partway down and closed his eyes in order to use his other senses to determine whether anyone else was there. Mikey detected only one other presence and he knew who that was.

In the center of the room was a small cage and locked inside was his brother Leonardo.

"Waiting on a bus?" Mikey asked with a grin as he approached the cage.

"Very funny, Mikey," Leo said. "You want to get this door open before Bishop shows up?"

Using one of his nunchucks, Mikey smashed the lock on the cage and swung the door open. Leo climbed out slowly, gladly accepting Mikey's assistance in standing.

"They shot you with a knockout dart, didn't they?" Mikey asked.

"Yes they did," Leo said, rubbing the side of his neck. "Took my swords too."

Mikey looked around and spotted Leo's katanas on a nearby table. He went over to grab them while Leo stretched. Spotting a pad of paper and some pencils on another table, Mikey handed Leo his swords and then started writing.

"Hurry up, we're about to have company," Leo said as he sheathed his swords. "What are you doing anyway?"

Leo looked over Mikey's shoulder to read the note his brother was leaving. _"You throw a shell of a party, Bishie. Sorry we couldn't stick around. Thanks for the lovely parting gift!"_

"You're incorrigible," Leo said, shaking his head. "What parting gift?"

"I'm keeping the tranquilizer gun," Mikey said as they headed upstairs. "It's fun to play with."

Leo didn't ask any other questions as they moved from the first floor to the next, though he did look at the bodies scattered around the store.

They made it to Mikey's motorcycle without encountering Bishop or any more of his men. Leo climbed on behind his brother and they drove to where the other Shell Cycle was parked.

"Your head on straight enough to drive?" Mikey asked as Leo disembarked.

"I'm fine," Leo said. "We need to be out of this area before Bishop starts locking it down. Besides, Don will kill me if I leave the bike here."

When they got back to the lair, they discovered that their brothers were just about to go out looking for them.

"What happened to you two?" Raph demanded.

Leo explained how they'd started out to play a simple game only to have their evening spoiled by Bishop. When he reached the part where they'd locked him into the cage, he said, "I heard his men saying that Bishop has units deployed all over the city to watch for us. We need to find a way to discourage that sort of activity."

"It's a good thing you guys had separated, otherwise he might have captured both of you," Don said, looking worried.

Raph on the other hand was close to beaming. "I can't believe the king of stealth got himself caught and had to be rescued by our resident goof."

Rather than taking offense, Mikey was hit by a sudden realization and grinned. Turning to Leo, he said, "That reminds me, we had a bet on, didn't we Leo? What was that exactly? Oh yeah, _you_ caused the disturbance, _you_ got caught, so I win."

Leo bowed graciously, accepting his defeat. "You beat me fair and square."

"What was that?" Mikey said, cupping a hand behind his ear.

"You win the bet Mikey," Leo said in a louder voice.

"Awesome!" Mikey exclaimed. Dashing into the living area, he plunked down on the carpet near his comic books and called out, "I'll take some popcorn and a drink and then you can sit here and read some comics to me."

Leo shook his head and sighed. "Never, ever lose a bet to Mikey," Leo advised his brothers. "I'm beginning to wish he'd have left me in that cage."

Peals of laughter followed him into the kitchen.

End


End file.
